Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon, sponsored by Stop & Shop/Giant, at Sarabeth's Restaurant in New York City, where I got to meet the owner...yep, Sara Beth...herself and even sat next to her, during lunch, so I tried NOT to slump, or slurp my soup, too much!
Why?
Well, I was also sitting next to a really Cool Mom - oh crud, as if I needed any MORE help looking, you know, all schlumpy - and plenty of other real moms, too!
[waves at Mommies With Style]
So, yeah, a bunch of bloggers were invited and NOT just for the food, either!
Well, okay, so I was excited to see all the Nature's Promise items on the goodie table - a brand that I am already very familiar with - it is the line of natural and AFFORDABLE organic food available exclusively at Stop & Shop and I buy their eggs, all the time.
Aaaaaand, maybe I even heard that there would be plenty of Sarabeth's famous chocolate chip cookies, for the taking, too!
See...that's me, on the right, sitting next to Liz Gumbinner (a.k.a. Mom-101) from Cool Mom Picks and looking all...you know... schlumpy!
But, it was meeting Andrea Astrachan - the Consumer Advisor to Stop & Shop - that had me pretty much convinced that Stop & Shop was really onto something.
Besides, hiring someone as cute and approachable as Andrea, I mean.
She spoke about the changes that Stop & Shop/Giant supermarkets are making as a result of listening to their customers.
Like, when some moms asked to be able to get through a checkout line, without having to distract little ones from looking at ALL the candy, or having to explain away what those nasty little tabloid headlines really mean.
Parents can look for family-friendly check-out lanes, called Smiles for All, including:
- Better snacks and beverages, such as low-fat milk, organic 100% juices, drinkable yogurts, cut carrots & celery, string cheese, rice cakes and NO CANDY.
- Family-friendly magazines, including age-appropriate selections for children and parenting, cooking, women's and health magazines for mom and dad.
- Free activity sheets and stickers for children - a nice reward for helping mom and dad with the weekly grocery shopping and fun for the ride (or walk) home!
Stop & Shop's website recently went through a makeover, as well:
- Living Well - learn about food safety, important information about allergens, like gluten intolerance and nut allergies and read Andrea's weekly column on important on health and nutrition, community events and more.
- Savings - view their weekly online circular and information on special promotions.
- Meal Solutions - view a menu of prepared foods, recipes and tips on easy entertaining.
- Shopping Tools - find local stores, list of brands and cool new shopping tools.
Speaking of cool gadgets, my favorite has to be Stop & Shop's new Scan It - scan and bag in the aisle as you shop, with a running total on how much you're spending and saving!
Then, there's Peapod.com, an online shopping and delivery service (available in the stores listed above) with Stop and Shop.
Peapod customers can also use their new nutritional tool, called Nutrifilter - it's a life saver, literally:
- Shoppers select a program, such as USDA Low Fat, USDA Low Sodium, USDA Good Fiber and Weight Watchers.
- Nutrifilter then finds the items in each category that meet the selected program's criteria.
- Nutrifilter also provides a filter for Gluten-free and Peanut-free items, helping parents of children with food allergies shop with confidence.
- You can also use Nutrifilter to create a customized program by selecting from several nutritional criteria to meet your personal needs.
Although, I'd like to see an upgrade to their website to include Nutrifilter - not to mention, other supermarkets adopt a similar program - I was very impressed with Stop & Shop and equally suprised to find out that Stop & Shop/Giant offers a money back guarantee if you are not happy with one of their store brands.
No, it may not solve the economic crises that families (like us) are feeling at the moment - my husband works for the banking industry, 'nuf said - but, in my opinion, Stop & Shop has taken a giant step toward building customer loyalty.
That, my friends, is worth the price of admission....which, is STILL free....the last time I checked, anyway!
FIND IT HERE: StopandShop.com
GET IT HERE: Save $20 on a first delivery from Peapod.com by entering code E2008$20 into the promotional code box on the homepage, or at checkout! Offer expires 12/31/08 and is good on your first delivery.
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